Okay, Song of Solomon, chapter
six. The title of the lesson this
morning is Two All-Important Questions. Two All-Important
Questions. When we preach, when we witness
to people, maybe you're at work and going about your daily life
and hopefully we conduct ourselves in a Christ-like fashion and
someone may notice that there's a difference, something's different.
And we'd like for people to see those things and ask two all-important
questions. Number one, we'd like people
to ask, we pray that people would ask, who is your savior? Who is Christ? And second, where
is Christ? Where can I find him? Now you
remember in chapter five, the bride has gone through a time
of spiritual stupor and she woke up when Christ was near. She,
the sound of his voice, the smell of his grace woke her up, you
know, from, she finally got up out of bed and she went looking
for a beloved, but she couldn't find him. He'd withdrawn himself.
She went out into the night looking for her beloved and everyone
she saw, she asked him, do you know where my beloved is? Can
you tell me where he is? And then she told him, if you
find him, you tell him I'm sick with love for him. I need to
see, I need to be with him. And then the daughters of Jerusalem
ask her this first question. We pray people would ask, well,
who is your beloved? What's so special about him?
In verse nine of chapter five, this is their question. What
is thy beloved more than another beloved? O thou fairest among
women. What is thy beloved more than
another beloved that thou dost so charge us? What's the big
deal? Why is it so important to you? Who is Christ? Who is your beloved? And she
answered, you remember, she told them all about her best friend,
about her beloved. And then after hearing who Christ
is, after hearing about the glories of his person, the daughters
of Jerusalem asked the second question. We pray people would
ask us, Where is Christ? You told me who he is, now where
can I find him? Now verse one, chapter six, this
is where we pick up. Whether is thy beloved gone,
O thou fairest among women? Whether is thy beloved turned
aside, that we may seek him with thee? Now this, we pray that
the Lord would cause people to ask these two all important questions. Who is Christ and where is he?
But now it's not enough that someone know about Christ. Now,
it's not just enough someone knows where he is. We must believe
Christ. We have to believe on him. Now,
before anyone can ask these questions and then believe on Christ with
saving faith, two things must happen. First, they have to hear
the gospel preached. Isn't that right? How are they
going to know even know who Christ is if they don't hear him preached?
Now, normally speaking, Just humanly speaking, if we have
a best friend, certainly a spouse, we want to keep them for ourselves.
Janet's my spouse. I want to keep her for myself.
I don't want to share with everybody. I want her to be my spouse. But
not so with Christ. If Christ is your savior and
he's your friend, you want everybody to have him. You want everybody
to know him. And that's why we preach the
gospel of Christ. That's why we witness to people
and tell people about Christ. We want them to know Christ.
Look over Romans chapter 10. And the only way they're gonna
know him is by hearing him preached. You gotta hear of Christ through
the preaching of the gospel before you can believe on him. Romans
chapter 10 verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. There's no restriction,
there's no criteria you have to meet. Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, how then shall
they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it's written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. Now, our prayer is that people
become interested in Christ. Our prayer is that people have
a desire to know Christ. Well, then we've got to preach
Christ to them. We've got to tell them about Christ and not
get sidetracked on so many other issues. So many things come up
and we can't get sidetracked on. What's important is people
know Christ, that people believe him. And that's what the bride
did in chapter five of Song of Solomon. She told them all about
her beloved, all about her best friend. And when the daughters
of Jerusalem heard that, they wanted to know him. And this
all we're doing, we preach the gospel, we witness to people,
we're just telling them about Christ. Only the gospel tells
people how Christ can be our best friend. Now I can tell you
that Christ is my best friend, But only the gospel can tell
you how he can be my best friend. Only the gospel can tell us how
God can be our friend. Only the gospel tells us how
God can be merciful to sinners. Only the gospel tells us how
God can be just and still justify the ungodly. It's by Christ. It's by the substitutionary death
of Christ. It's by his work as our representative. And we've got to hear that gospel
before we can trust Christ. You've got to hear of Him before
you can believe Him. And second, before anyone can believe on
Christ with saving faith, they've got to be born again. You've
got to hear the gospel and you've got to be born again. It's impossible
for any human being to believe on Christ until we're born again.
Because the flesh, the nature that we're born with, will never
have faith in Christ, ever. So if we're gonna believe on
Christ, God's gotta cause a new man to be born who does have
faith, who does love Christ. And a person is not born again
because they have faith. A person has faith because they're
born again. In the new birth, there's a new
man born. He's got a different nature from
the nature of Adam because he's born from a different seed. He's
born from a different father. And only that new man can believe
Christ. Only the new man can love Christ.
Only the new man can follow Christ. Now look at 1 Peter 1. The way God has ordained for
a sinner to be born again is through the preaching of the
gospel. 1 Peter 1. Verse 23, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. For all flesh is his grass. This
is why we've got to be born again, because all flesh is his grass.
And all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. If a sinner is going to be born
again, it's going to happen through the preaching of the gospel.
And that's why it's so important for us to only preach Christ,
only Christ, all Christ, all the time. Someone recently heard
me preach a few times and their observation was all he preaches
is Christ. And they weren't meaning that
as a critical thing. It was just an observation. All
he preaches is Christ. And I took that as a great compliment.
Because that's all that matters, is that we hear Christ preached.
Nobody's gonna be born again through any other message. And
that's why it's so important for us to witness to people,
to tell them about Christ, and to invite people to come to the
service. Otherwise, they'll never be born again. No one can be
born again without the seed of the word of God. Now, this work
of the new birth, only God can do it. Only God can do this work
in a sinner. Only God could make someone ask
these questions. Who is Christ and where is Christ?
Only God can do that. But what's our responsibility?
Our responsibility is to be faithful, to preach Christ. All the time,
every time, to preach His word because that's the means that
God uses to give life to His people. And that's exactly what
happened here in our text. The daughters of Jerusalem, they
heard about the glory of Christ. And they wanted to know Him too.
They wanted to know where to find him for themselves. They
weren't just gonna help the bride find him. They wanted to find
him for themselves. God used the witness of the bride
to create a desire in the hearts of the daughters of the new Jerusalem,
to create a desire to know Christ. So now they want to seek the
Lord. This is what they're asking her now. We want to seek him
with you, because where can we find the one that'll forgive
our sin? Where can we find the one who
will love us and be our best friend? Where can we find the
one who's altogether lovely and will be gracious to us or show
grace to someone as ugly and defiled with sin as me? Where
can we find him? You see, they saw what the bride
had with Christ and they wanted that for themselves. This is
the second time here, just in a few verses, they call her the
fairest among women. Well, how can they call her the
fairest among women? She wasn't born that way. You
remember back earlier in the Song of Solomon, she described
herself as black with sin. Don't look at me, I'm black with
sin. I'm as black as the tents of
Kedar. She wasn't the fairest of women by nature. She wasn't
born that way. Her nature's not that way. Where
did the daughters of Jerusalem find her in chapter five? In
a spiritual stupor. So this is not the nature she
came with. She's the fairest among women because Christ washed
her in his blood, because Christ caused her to be born again by
his spirit. And when they saw that the bride
had that with Christ, they had a desire to have it for themselves.
Now, this is very important. I really looked at this. I've
thought a lot about it this week. It's so important for us to seek
the Lord together. Now, Let me say this. I must
seek the Lord for myself. Nobody can do that for me. I've
got to seek the Lord for myself. Each of you do too. You've got
to seek the Lord for yourself. I must seek the Lord to be my
savior. I must seek Christ to be the
sacrifice for my sin. I've got to seek Christ to be
my righteousness. I've got to seek Christ to be
my all and you do too. Each one of you, nobody can do
it for you. But I tell you this about seeking the Lord, about
seeking to worship the Lord. The worship of the Lord is done
best publicly. It is. I am much more likely
to find the Lord in worship when I seek him with you, when we
do it publicly. Now look over Matthew chapter
18. This is a verse we quote often. Roy did not know where
I was going with this this morning, but he quoted this verse in his
prayer this morning because this is, This is something that we
can pray because this is God's word to us, and we quote it all
the time, but we need to read it. Let's make sure everybody's
seeing this for themselves in God's word. Matthew 18, verse
19. Again, I say unto you, that if
two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything, that they
shall ask, it should be done for them of my Father which is
in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name,
There am I in the midst of them. Now, can we agree to ask the
Lord for his presence in our worship service this morning?
Can two of us, two or three of us agree on that? Can we agree
to ask the Lord to bless his word to our hearts this morning?
Can we agree on that? Can we agree to ask the Lord
to reveal his glory to us this morning and enable us to worship
Can we ask the Lord to glorify his name in our hearts, in our
minds? If two or three of us can agree
on that, ask the Lord for that together, our Savior said it's
gonna be done. Isn't that what he just said?
I tell you, a good thing in prayer is plead the Lord's word. He
said, if two of you agree on this, whatever you ask, you'll
get it. If we ask the Lord to enable
us to worship this morning, he said he would. He said, where
two or three are gathered together in my name, I'll be in the midst
of them. Or at least two or three of us gathered together in his
name, seeking him, seeking to worship him. Then our savior
said, I'll be in the midst of you. And that's what we desire,
that he be in the midst of us. We're wasting our time if he's
not, then this is our prayer. And so this is why it's so important
we seek him together. Now I tell you, neglecting public
worship, is the fastest way I know of to fall into a spiritual stupor. Neglecting public worship is
the fastest way I know of to get everything in your life out
of focus, the fastest way. Our Lord has chosen to feed and
to comfort and to encourage and instruct and save his people
through the preaching of the gospel that's done in public
worship. Now we need each other. Don't
be mistaken about this. We need each other. Each one
of us, we need each other. We need mutual encouragement.
We need mutual comfort from one another. I need you to influence
me. You need each other to influence
you. The people of this world, people
who don't know our Lord, they influence us all day, every day. Who are you with all day? At
work and everywhere. People of the world influence
us all the time. We need the people of God to
influence us, to help us, to encourage one another. We need
to help one another in times of trouble or just in our everyday
life. Look for a way to help one another,
be encouragement to one another. Look over at Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. Notice what
our Lord did when he sent out the 70 to go out and preach.
Luke chapter 10, verse one. After these things, the Lord
appointed other 70 also and sent them two and two before his place
into every city and place, whether he himself would not come. The
Lord didn't send out the disciples alone, did he? He sent them out
with a buddy. He sent them out with a friend,
two and two. So we got each other to help
and encourage one another along. Now make no mistake, the preaching
of Christ is paramount, absolutely paramount. But we do need each
other. And every believer knows this.
There are times that we fall into a spiritual stupor. And
I'll tell you one real good way to help us avoid falling into
a spiritual stupor and to help us get out of that spiritual
stupor. You know what it is? It's just to talk to one another
about Christ. Just talk to one another about
the Savior. You know, we should be able to
talk to each other about everything. We should enjoy sitting and talking
with one another. Last week, Jan and I were in
Danville. We were at dinner and two other
couples were there and we were talking. We talked about everything
under the sun. But the conversation always comes back to Christ because
Christ is our common denominator. Christ is our base. And just,
that's the way believers' conversation, of course we talk about other
things too, you know, talk about our lives and things that's going
on, but that conversation will always come back to the base.
It's Christ. So even when we're in a spiritual
stupor, like the bride was in chapter five, we may not be able
to sense the presence of the Lord, but we can still talk about
him. You know, we may not be able
to enjoy his presence right now, but we sure can talk about him.
And when the bride did, even though she was in a spiritual
stupor, she could answer some questions about who the Lord
is. And when she did that, the daughters of Jerusalem got interested
in knowing Christ too. And it doesn't just help others
when we talk about the Savior. When we talk about the Savior,
You know things usually start to come into perspective, don't
they? Things that were getting fuzzy and out of focus start
coming into clear focus when we start talking about the Savior.
You remember in chapter 5, the bride, she'd been looking for
Christ. She couldn't find him, could she? She tells everybody,
do you know where my beloved is? Can you tell me where he
is? Can you tell me where to find him? Where's he gone? I
need to be, I'm sick with love for him. I need to be with him.
Can you tell me where he is? And then when her friends start
asking her about Christ, what's so important about him that you
need him? Suddenly, she remembers where
he is. She remembers where Christ is
when she just started talking about the glories of his person.
Look in verse two, it's on Solomon six. My beloved has gone down
into his garden to the beds of spices to feed in the gardens
and to gather lilies. She tells him, oh, I know where
my beloved is. He's in his garden. And we've
seen this in previous chapters. The garden is God's church. Now, just a few minutes ago,
she was asking other people, can you tell me where my beloved
is? Can you tell me where he can be found? And she knew it
all along. I guess she just forgot it, you
know, in her spiritual stupor. But talking about Christ reminded
her where Christ can be found. Oh, I know where he's found.
He's in his church. He's with his people. And you
know, if you look back in chapter five, duh, this is exactly where
he didn't leave it to us wonder. He told us where he'd be. Chapter
five, verse one. I'm coming to my garden, my sister,
my spouse. I've gathered my myrrh with my
spice. I've eaten my honeycomb with my honey. I've drunk my
wine with my milk. Now eat, oh friends, drink. Yea,
drink abundantly, oh beloved. I'm in my garden. Now you, I'm
enjoying being with my people. Now you come into my garden and
you eat and drink abundantly. This garden is God's whole church. Now there's different beds, different
beds of spices and different beds of lilies. Those are the
different local churches, but they're all part of one big body,
one church. They're part of one garden, even
though there are different local places. And each different spice,
each different lily are individual believers. But you find them
all in the garden. You find them all in God's church,
in the body of Christ. And Christ comes to his garden.
He comes to tend to each one of those beds. He comes to tend
to each one of those spices and each one of those lilies. They're
all his. And he comes to enjoy each one
of them. He comes to enjoy His work of
grace that He's done in His people. That's what the bride means at
the end of verse three when she says, He feedeth among the lilies.
He is enjoying being with His people. He feeds among the lilies. He enjoys His work of grace in
them. He enjoys what He has made them,
where He's planted them, how He's made them grow and prosper
and bear fruit. And now the bride says, I know
where my beloved is. He's coming to his garden. Now
this garden belongs to Christ. It's all his. He bought each
member of his church, each one of these plants in his garden,
he bought them with his precious blood that he shed at Calvary.
And everything in that garden, he planted. It's there because
he planted it there. He gave it life, he gave it spiritual
life, so it belongs to him. And He takes care of the garden.
The garden's going to grow because He waters it. Because He causes
sun to shine on it. Because He weeds it. He keeps
it safe from the animals to come in and eat the tender leaves.
It's His. He takes care of it. He provides
for it. And He dwells in the garden.
This is where He dwells. He dwells in the hearts of His
people. And I tell you where Christ dwells,
He dwells as king. He is in charge. He's the owner. Wherever it is he is, he dwells
in his garden. It's his. And it's just so interesting
to me that when the daughters of Jerusalem start asking questions
about the Lord, she suddenly remembered where Christ can be
found. When she quit talking about herself and started talking
about the Savior. And then she also, when she started
talking about the Savior, she remembered where he is, And she
suddenly found comfort as she talked about the Savior. Look
at verse three. I am my beloved's, and my beloved
is mine. What comfort the bride found
when she started talking about the Savior. I am my beloved's. I belong to him, and my beloved's
is mine. I've been so unfaithful, but
I am still my beloved's. and my beloved still is mine.
I've been so unloving, uncaring, unfeeling, but I am still my
beloved's and my beloved still is mine. I've forgotten my beloved. Just forgotten. Didn't think
about him, forgot who he is and where he is, where he could be
found. But I am still my beloved's and my beloved still is mine.
I've been in this spiritual stupor, just sleepy and lethargic. but still I am my beloved's and
my beloved's is mine. I have acted so unworthy of Christ,
but still I am my beloved's and my beloved's is mine. You got
the picture? See, our comfort and our assurance and confidence
comes from the faithfulness of Christ, who he is. Not our faith,
not what we've done, not anything we've done. Our confidence and
comfort is who he is, not what we've done. We're saved by grace
through faith and that not of yourselves. Faith is a gift that
God gave you. So our comfort, our confidence,
our assurance is all in him and nothing about us. She says, I
am my beloved. I belong to him. Well, when did
you become his? Here's some comfort for you.
When did you become his? I've always been his, always.
by eternal gift. The Father gave me to Christ
as a gift in divine election. I've always been his in his eternal
love, his eternal electing love. I've always been his. There's
never been a time I wasn't. I've always been his by eternal
grace. Even though he knew what I'd
be by nature, he knew what I'd be falling in Adam. I've always
been his by eternal grace. I became his in redemption. When
Christ took my sin and his body on the tree and he suffered and
he bled and died for my sin, he bought me lock, stock and
barrel with the blood of his sacrifice. I became his when
he bought me. I became his when he made me
be born again by his seed, not the seed of my natural father,
but by his seed. I became his when he made me
partaker of the divine nature. I became his, I've always been
his. And I became his when he told
me all about it through the preaching of the gospel. I became his through
a marriage relationship when he joined himself to me. I'm
his. And here's the comfort. Nothing
I did made me his. I'm his because of everything
he did for me and in me. Nothing I did made me his. And
nothing I can do make me not his either. It all has to do
with Him. Now believe me, and I know you
feel the same way. You who believe, I know you feel
this way. What I desire is to live in loving submission to
Christ. Oh, how I desire that. There's
never an excuse to live any other way. There really isn't. But
when I don't live in loving submission to Christ, I'm thankful I have
this confidence. I am my Beloved's because of
what He did for me and in me. And my Beloved's is mine. I belong
to Christ and Christ belongs to me. Now Ralph, if I've got
Christ, I've got everything. Isn't that right? What more could
you want? If I've got Christ, I don't want
for anything because Christ is mine. Now again, there's such
confidence and comfort in this. Even when I don't feel his presence
and enjoy his presence, a sense of it, my beloved is mine. Christ is mine because he gave
himself for me. I know he gave himself for a
number no man can number, but he gave himself for me and he
gave himself to me. He dwells in my heart, so he's
mine. Christ is mine because he's my savior. He's my friend. He's my husband. He's my Redeemer. Christ is mine through union
with Christ. He's the head and I'm the body. Now the head belongs to the body,
just as much as the body belongs to the head. I am my Beloved's
and my Beloved's is mine. And since I am Christ, since
I belong to Him, I'll always be with Him. She says here He's
going to come to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies.
And that day comes when He comes to gather His lilies, those individual
believers. He's going to gather me to be
with Him. What comfort is there now? What
confidence we have in Christ? He's coming again. It's soon.
He's coming again. And when He does, I've got no
reason to fear. He's going to gather me to Himself
because I belong to Him and He belongs to me. These are two all-important questions. Who is Christ and where can I
find him? You know, if no one else is asking
us these questions, could be we ought to ask these questions
to our own self. Who is he and where is he? Look at the confidence
and the comfort the bride found in Christ when she answered these
two all-important questions about Christ. If we find ourselves
in a spiritual stupor, if we find ourselves cold and distant,
all the awful things we go through in this spiritual stupor could
be able to help us a great deal. If we ask ourselves these two
questions, just who is Christ? Who is my Savior? Just start
thinking about, talking about, find somebody, call somebody,
find somebody, talk about the glory of your Redeemer, everything
He has done. Start talking about Him. You
might be surprised how quickly you remember who He is and where
He is and get yourself out of that spiritual stupor. Could
be, all right. Well, I hope the Lord will bless
that too.